The dust has pretty much settled on the NBA offseason.
Sure, there’s still a player or two out there and a move or two some teams can make. But for the most part, teams have put together their rosters for the 2015-16 season.
Have any teams in the Eastern Conference improved enough to climb out of the lottery and into the playoffs? And can any team threaten the Cleveland Cavaliers for conference supremacy?
The Sheridan Hoops staff offers its take in this edition

When I was a kid, I never got a summer report card, which was because I never had to attend summer school. The months of June, July and August were reserved for fun, fun and more fun, a practice I carried through my 20s, 30s and 40s and now bring into Year 50.
Fun, of course, is relevant when you hit the Big Five-Oh.
Beating your 16-year-old in tennis? Yes, that’s fun. Teaching your dog to swim? Doesn’t get much better than

There has been a lot of activity during the offseason.
Since July 1, there have been free agent signings totaling nearly $2 billion. In addition, there have been a dozen trades involving 22 players and 12 draft picks.
But which teams have really improved themselves? And which teams have taken a step backward?
In this edition of the Three-Man Weave, we take a lot at who won – and lost – the offseason in the Eastern Conference.
1. Which Eastern Conference team has had

“Fuhgetaboutit!”
That’s what Brooklyn Nets fans were saying on Twitter when the team announced it had agreed to terms with Andrea Bargnani.
Nets fans in Little Italy applauded the move.
The agreement is reportedly a two-year deal for the veteran’s minimum salary, according to the New York Post. The second year of the deal is a player option. Barring a catastrophically bad season, Bargnani would opt out after this season.
Fans of the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks may laugh at the signing,

As many predicted, there was no shortage of trades at the 2015 NBA draft. There just weren’t any big ones.
We were all hoping for a blockbuster like DeMarcus Cousins to the Los Angeles Lakers or the Toronto Raptors detonating their roster. Instead, we may have to wait for the powderkeg of Kings training camp, when George Karl first asks Cousins to show harder on a pick-and-roll.
We even would have settled for a team such as the Celtics or Hawks taking

BROOKLYN — It’s incredible how a building’s mood can change so drastically every five minutes. From the roaring approval for Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell to the acidic, vitriol for the Knicks’ pick of Kristaps Porzingis, nothing satisfies a sports fan’s need for instant gratification like reacting to an NBA draft pick.
But there were great moments behind the scenes that you could not see. A proud multi-generational basketball family sharing a special moment in a back room. A fashion statement that added to

The Charlotte Hornets are unlikely to keep swingman Matt Barnes after acquiring him with Spencer Hawes in the trade that sent Lance Stephenson to the Clippers, thus making Barnes a probable free agent by the end of the month.
“It is unlikely Charlotte keeps Barnes, who’ll become a free agent,” wrote Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who initially broke news of the trade.
Barnes would be owed $3.5 million for the 2015-16 season should the Hornets keep him, but only $1 million of

Drafted No. 4 overall in the 2004 NBA draft and suffering a potential career-ending knee injury in 2007, Golden State Warriors guard Shaun Livingston believes playing in the NBA finals is “a special moment”, especially for him.
In 2007, Livingston, in his third season with the Los Angeles Clippers, tore his ACL, MCL, PCL, a lateral meniscus and had a dislocated kneecap all in one knee. Even the Clippers’ team physician hadn’t “seen a lot of these” happen in one knee.